VCU news

By Brian McNeill

Miles King, a freshman in Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Business, stands before a panel of judges in Founder’s Corner — a co-working space for student entrepreneurs in University Student Commons — and pitches his idea to launch a clothing brand.

“It’s called ‘Love Everybody,’” King said. “I created [the brand] earlier this year because everybody around me was going through negative times and with all the injustices around there was just a lot of negativity. So I wanted to promote peace and positivity through different designs on clothing ­— jackets, shirts, hats. Everything on my clothing is positive — it’s meant to make people feel better.”

King’s clothing brand idea was one of a dozen business concepts pitched at VCU’s new weekly “Pop-up Pitches” competition, at which VCU students pitch their ideas in an informal setting for a chance to win $200.

“What we’re trying to do is get students engaged with all the entrepreneurial pathways that we have available at VCU,” said Nicole Monk, director of VCU Innovation Economy. “The idea is not necessarily to find the next big idea, though that would be great, the point is really more to find entrepreneurial students and make sure they understand what’s available to them at VCU.”

The Pop-up Pitches competitions, held Thursdays at 2 p.m. in Founder’s Corner, are open to any VCU student. And, even if a student does not win one week, he or she is welcome to come back and try again, Monk said.

“People can pitch as much as possible,” she said. “They can re-pitch an idea, they can pitch a new idea, or they can even pitch their talent set or maybe pitch something that they need, and maybe there’ll be someone in the crowd who needs those talents or has a talent that person needs. It’s just a way to connect. Even if you win, you can always come back.”

At the first Pop-up Pitches competition of the semester, students pitched their ideas at varying levels of development. Some suggested ideas that they had conceived that afternoon, while others presented concepts that were all but ready to launch. Two students who had never met connected over each other’s’ ideas, and made follow-up plans to meet up to discuss developing an app.

Jomarie Pulido, a freshman in the Department of Forensic Science in the College of Humanities and Sciences, pitched his idea to develop an app that would replace clickers in classrooms.

“It’s a clicker app,” he said. “Why not? Why doesn’t that already exist?”

Zuriel Ferguson, who is studying computer science, pitched an app he is developing that would provide information about college courses, and allow users to connect with other students interested in that course.

Another student pitched the idea of a record label by and for members of the LGBTQ community. Yet another presented a music and arts journalism website that he has in the works.

The winner of the first Pop-up Pitches competition was Christopher Williams, a senior biomedical engineering major, who pitched his idea to develop affordable prostheses, particularly for veterans returning from war.

“A big issue is not only are they losing physical mobility, but they’re also developing mental ailments because they don’t feel like they used to,” Williams said. “I’m proposing a biomedical prosthetic … that is heavily customizable, easy to replace if it breaks [and] … very cheap from a manufacturing standpoint.”

According to a recent survey, 50 percent of VCU students, across the university's 13 different schools, are interested in starting their own company.

Pop-up Pitches are part of Venture Creation University, VCU’s university-wide initiative to support innovative and entrepreneurial-minded VCU students and to ensure that all students have access to entrepreneurial pathways.